Snow and blizzards hit country causing road closures and disruption

Snow and blizzards across Scotland forced the closure of roads as forecasters warned residents to be prepared for further disruption.

The Met Office issued amber warnings for bad weather on Monday with the east expected to be particularly badly hit by the snowfall.

Traffic Scotland warned drivers to be “aware of the risk of disruption to travel” as the wintry weather affects the country.

According to forecasters at the Met Office, up to 20cm of snow expected in parts of the Central Scotland, Tayside, Lothian and Borders, Grampian and Highland areas.

On Monday morning several routes were forced to close because of the snowfall, including the A941 Dufftown to Rhynie road in Moray and the B974 Banchory to Fettercairn route in Aberdeenshire. Due to snow, Lothian and Borders Police asked drivers to use the A1 or M74 as the A68 at Carter Barr is closed in England while Scottish side is affected by the weather.

Traffic Scotland also warned the A93 Aboyne to Ballater in Aberdeenshire is passable with care because of the blizzard conditions.

STV weatherman Sean Batty said that avalanche risks on mountain ranges across Scotland would remain in force over the coming days because of the wintry blast, which comes after four climbers died in an avalanche over the weekend in Glencoe.

He added: "An area of low pressure has been developing over France during the weekend. This will move north on Sunday night bringing widespread snow over northern and eastern England before spreading to eastern Scotland during the early hours of Monday.

"The snow will turn heavier and more persistent during the morning over parts of the Borders, especially eastern areas, East Lothian, Fife, Angus and Perthshire. Monday's snowfall will be accompanied by a strong south-easterly wind making it feel extremely cold and this will also lead to blizzards and blowing of the lying snow to create large drifts in places.

"Disruption is highly likely in eastern parts of the country on Monday and Tuesday with the wintry conditions expected to last into Tuesday afternoon at least. Drivers will need to prepare for reduced visibility and icy conditions along with the possibility that some of the roads may be closed. Roads that are most likely to be affected by this event are the A68, A1 in the Borders. Further north the A93, A90 the A85 from Crieff to Perth, A9 from Stirling to Pitlochry, A939, A97 and more significantly the M90 could be affected during this period and throughout both rush hours, especially on the more southern routes."

Sean continued: "With the combination of the strong winds and wet snow, which easily sticks to power lines, this could lead to ice accretion and bring lines down and lead to power outages and disruption to trains as lines become frozen.

"While the worst of the conditions will affect the east of the country, and more especially, Tayside and the Borders elsewhere there will be snow on and off too which could lead to a few centimetres. Areas likely to escape the worst are to the north-west such as The Hebrides and Northwest Highlands although there will still be a very cold wind. Avalanche risks will remain over the coming days especially in areas where there will be large falls of snow.

"It will stay very cold this week with further snow at times although a transition to less cold conditions next weekend is expected but that in itself could bring further heavy snow to some areas."

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